All the wheels are turning in the world of the Los Angeles Lakers now that they’ve landed the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Spectrum SportsNet turned their coverage up full blast, catching up with Lakers head coach Luke Walton while he was out celebrating at Taco Tuesday following the momentous lottery victory.
Walton was watching the draft at his home with assistant coach Jesse Murmuys, keeping things low profile as they tried to play it cool at Luke’s. Things started to pick up when the Lakers were locked into the top-three. It go so loud, in fact, that the children in the house started crying.
“When we saw that four wasn't us people started getting pretty loud to where the kids got scared and started crying, so it got a little animated over there,” Walton told Jaime Maggio of Spectrum SportsNet.
Aside from the fun anecdote, Luke credited the Lakers’ doing things the right way through the end of the season and not tanking put them in favor of the Basketball Gods, who’ve gifted Los Angeles three No. 2 picks in a row.
“I've always believed that things work out the way they're supposed to and we decided to play the end of the season to try to win ball games and not go into tank mode, and the Basketball Gods shined down on us for that today,” Luke said.
Walton discussed vague details about how Ryan West and other members of the front office will be in charge of lining up workouts, while the coaching staff will conduct the workouts as the team evaluates their options with both the No. 2 and 28 pick.
Luke’s looking forward to getting a closer look at the elite talent coming into the NBA this summer, a chance to help hand pick the next key piece in the Lakers’ rebuild.
“During the season I don't have time to watch any college basketball really. I haven't seen other than SportsCenter highlights on a lot of these kids so it'll be nice to get them in there see their real size, see how they move on the court, see how they play,” Luke Said.
“I'm a basketball junkie so I love that type of stuff.”
* All quotes transcribed via Spectrum SportsNet